CLUAS Opinion

Irish Music - a truly influential force?

Aidan kicks off this new section on CLUAS.com with a probing and
thought-provoking piece on the degree of influence Irish musicians have had
world-wide. Take it away Aidan....

Roddy Doyle said recently in an interview in The Guardian that Ireland
doesn't produce great musicians. Considering that he is currently promoting a
novel centred on Louis Armstrong and American jazz, it's possible that he may
have been quoted out of a very broad context. Nonetheless, he has a valid point.

No Irish acts are globally influential or inspirational in the way that Louis
Armstrong inspired Doyle to devote years of his life and energy to writing his
latest novel. James Joyce (ironically, another recent target of
Doyle's) and
Samuel Beckett have influenced writers and artists of all media in countries and
cultures across the world. However, no Irish singers or groups have similarly
fired the imagination of young bands in other countries the way that British and
American bands have affected you and I here in Ireland. Irish acts aren't
creating scenes, sounds or movements. However much you may loathe catch-all
labels like punk, Britpop, techno or
alt-country, the fact is that these
originally were musical breakthroughs forged in the heat of innovation and
experimentation by pioneers and mavericks. They led; we in Ireland were content
to follow. As in most orally-based cultures, our indigenous musical heritage is
an interpretative tradition of songs and airs handed down through generations.
But that hardly justifies our startling lack of musical innovation in recent
years.

There are certainly world-famous Irish acts, but that's not the same thing as
being influential. U2 are the most famous band on the planet, but a lot of that
is due to Bono's political ubiquity and to the U2 organisation's sharp
media-awareness, as demonstrated to artistic effect on their ZOO TV tour in the
early "90s. Bono may inspire political and social consciousness, and I admire
him greatly for it. But no young band at the moment wants to sound like U2, and
I doubt that future bands will either.

The story of Irish music is strewn with John-the-Baptists, lost geniuses and
what-might-have-beens. Rory Gallagher,
Se? "Riada, Luke Kelly, Phil Lynott" none fulfilled their potential to its maximum or created anything more than
flashing moments of greatness, and all now rely on misty-eyed mythologising for
their reputations. Only Lynott could be said to have made any impact on
international acts - Metallica and The Darkness cite him as an influence. But
since Thin Lizzy's heyday - which was three decades ago, remember - punk, metal,
disco, techno, grunge and a myriad of movements have electrified worldwide
music. Where were we when all of this was going on? Waiting to read about it in
the following week's NME, it seems. We have contributed nothing original,
radical or enduring to popular music. Even our wave of world-conquering boybands
(God bless 'em) had its source in the seminal moment at The Point when Louis
Walsh saw Take That but heard only cash registers. Which was better than hearing
Take That, I suppose.

As for Irish songwriting, Van Morrison, Shane McGowan and even
U2 have certainly
written great songs in their time, but only sporadically. "Q" magazine, in their
infinite wisdom, recently declared "One" to be the greatest song of all time - while it's certainly a very good song, this was a bit over-the-top to say the
least. To put the poll in context, "Independent Women" by Destiny's Child was
eighth, "My Name Is" by Eminem ninth.

The point is that no Irish songwriters have sustained the consistent creative
brilliance of the true elite of Premiership songwriters. Lennon & McCartney,
Bacharach & David, George Gershwin,
Tom Waits, Serge Gainsbourg, Cole Porter,
Joni Mitchell" no Irish songwriter has ever pushed the boundaries of their art
the way that these names have done, none have matched their invention, daring,
depth or individuality. Even Belgium has produced at least one towering figure
of popular music, namely Jacques Brel. No Irish artist past or present comes
anywhere near Brel's level of influence on other equally influential artists
(Scott Walker and David Bowie, to name two), his unique sound and his iconic
status. And Bjork, from Iceland, experiments freely and pushes her creative
vision with each new release, admittedly to varying degrees of success. But at
least she's out there trying new things and not afraid to make a fool of
herself.

Irish songwriting today is crippled by a lack of artistic ambition rooted in a
lazy, self-satisfied conservatism.
Damien Rice, Paddy Casey,
Mundy, Paul Brady,
Jimmy McCarthy, John Spillane, David Kitt,
The Frames,
Christy Moore,
Damien
Dempsey - these are among our most popular acts and they all work off the same
template of unoriginal Dylan-esque acoustic folk-pop, one long Grafton Street of
busker after busker. Similarly, The Thrills slavishly copy their Californian
heroes down to the last guitar jangle. The Frames have just released their new
album "Burn The Maps" to an accompanying chorus of
"this is definitely their
commercial/artistic breakthrough, I promise you". The same was said of their
previous two albums, you might remember. Now it's time to ask whether or not
they are actually good enough to ever break through into wider international
popularity, a bigger prize than just filling the same large home-town venues
over and over again. Bell X-1 have also reached this point and must now brace
themselves for the big jump. And then there's the likes of
Mark Geary, a
talented guy who for some reason feels the need to cover himself by suggesting
in interviews (a recent Sunday Times piece, for instance) that failure is quite
alright for him. What a cop-out.

The best artists are ruthlessly ambitious for success - artistic, commercial and
critical. Irish society is only now, in our new-found prosperity and all its
faults, becoming comfortable with the idea of material reward and earned status.
We should put this new self-confidence and appetite to good use. If the Battle
of Saipan taught us anything, it's that an acceptance of "will-this-do?" mediocrity and one-all draws will never win us the World Cup or anything of
value in life. Irish music has too many Micks and not enough Roys. Can a future
Irish band ever replace The Beatles as the generally-accepted "greatest band
ever". Of course they can. But these Irish acts must be prepared to take the
brave and uncertain steps into creative individuality, emotional toughness and
cut-throat ambition. Great songwriters are leaders, not followers.

Previous CLUAS Opinion pieces...

I
hate buskers. Hate them, hate them, hate them. Can't stand them. Won't
put up with them. Acoustic-guitar shouter on Grafton Street blocking
me going into Bewleys? Get out of my way! Doddery old accordion fella
on the Paris metro? Go off and do something productive like starting
a riot! Half-naked cowboy guy in New York? Pull up your pants, you eejit!
Read the full article...

The
majority of the music fed to the masses, sucks. It's watered down sufficiently
to appeal to as many people as possible, in order to offend as few as
possible, in order to shift as many units as possible, which is why
most entries into the charts are offensive. Dance is "cheesy" (or worse
still, "commercial", duh). Pop is dominated by boy bands, novelty songs,
runners up in reality TV shows and 2-dimensional 'stars?... Read the full article...

I
was driving home the other night to the missus, listening to Rufus Wainwright's
'Spotlight on Christmas', and it struck me that this simple song, originally
recorded for a MOJO Magazine Christmas themed CD, had more to say about
the core truths of Jesus Christ and Christmas than anything I've heard
from the Roman Catholic Church in quite some time. Read the full
article...

Alas,
another year has rolled by. It was a long period, when many a Euro had
been tossed towards the outstretched claws of music promoters and record
store employees. But, this is the time of the year that one should thank
them for stocking the music one wants, and for putting on the shows
that one desires to attend. It's also time highlight some of the unsigned
acts that have rapidly matured over the past twelve months. Of the many
who contested for one's attention, there were the following ten that
- for me at least - managed to stand out... Read the full article...

Mark
Feehily from Westlife recently revealed - via tabloid, naturally - that
he was gay. Being neither gay nor a Westlife fan, I had no feelings
of solidarity, shock or anything about it. Initially I gave it as little
interest as I do to Brian McFadden's nauseating attempts to cling to
celebrity status by moaning about it as publicly as possible. Read the full article...

It
has run the full gamut of description: from the ultimate marketing coup
to the end of music as we know it, a ring tone has crossed over to top
the singles chart. This has prompted a collective scratching of heads,
much comment on the thirty million spent promoting it and general sympathy
for Coldplay, who lost out in the race for the top spot. But before
we all run out to buy Coldplay's next single to right this abhorrence,
should we really be surprised that the music industry is more comfortable
doing business without an artist? Read the full article...

Here
they are. The ten songs every unreconstructed male should have close
to hand, preferably on a mix CD stashed in your sock drawer, to be played
only prior to emergencies (baby showers, distant relatives? funerals
and dinner with her friends). Read the full article...

Some
say that rock music, at least rock music with the balls to look you
in the eye and force a sigh, is dead and gone. They claim that it died
on a couch with Sid Vicious, in a lonely hotel room with Janis, growing
cold in a bath with Jim Morrison or twitching on a puke-stained bed
with Bonzo Bonham. Read the full article...

So
the sorry case of Michael Jackson surfaces again in our news. At the
time of writing he stands accused of an appalling crime, one that our
society rightly regards as indefensible and sickening. Jackson is, of
course, innocent until proven guilty. However, short of inventing a
cure for cancer, AIDS and the common cold in one pill, nothing that
he could do will ever redeem his reputation now, even if he is found
innocent. Read the full
article...

Once
upon a time, Whelan's of Wexford Street Dublin was considered to be
the coolest place to be. At its peak of popularity it was the heartbeat
of the Irish music scene. Mainstream and independent artists from various
genres have packed the venue over the years and played some memorable
shows. In the case of many music fanatics who regularly attend gigs
in Ireland, Whelan's was once hailed as their musical Mecca. Lately
though, the buzz around the place is slowly eroding away. Why is this?
What is going wrong? Read
the full article...

As
a nation of minstrels and planxties our respect and nostalgic soft-spot
for a one-man singer-songwriter has kept generations of mellow artistes alive. Singer/songwriter
syndrome has imbedded itself in the Irish music scene, with Damien Rice
and Mundy becoming our musical spokesmen. However it seems the day of
the man with a guitar singing of love and happiness is coming to an
end, threatened to be uprooted by a darker movement which has wrapped
its claws around the Irish underground. Make way for metal! Read the full article...

The
usual process for writing one of these Op-Ed pieces is that anyone writing
one of these sends a basic idea to Jules our Op-Ed-Editor so to speak.
If Jules gives the idea the nod, we then spend about two weeks hammering
it out into something vaguely coherent. This Op-Ed was originally supposed
to be a well researched and thought out piece on how copyright and recording
technology have changed modern music. Well nuts to that. Read the full article...

I
write from California. I spent my 20s in Los Angeles during the Reagan
Era, and it was hell. That administration was supporting death and torture
squads in El Salvador and Nicaragua, The environment was under attack.
Far Right nuts were being nominated to the Federal & Supreme Courts.
The national debt was being doubled and tripled (sounds like deja-vu
all over again, huh?). I remember feeling that it was the first time
in our history that the following generation would not have it better
than their parents. Read
the full article...

Roddy Doyle said recently in an interview in The Guardian
that Ireland doesn't produce great musicians. Considering that he is
currently promoting a novel centred on Louis Armstrong and American
jazz, it's possible that he may have been quoted out of a very broad
context. Nonetheless, he has a valid point. Read the full article...